City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: Came down with a nasty bug this weekend which prevented me from being at the Big 5 championships in person. Thanks to the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald for passing along post-game audio.)

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The Brynn McCurry that Denise Dillon has been waiting for for the last three years has finally arrived. 

The talented redshirt sophomore wing committed to Villanova back in the fall of 2022, going into her senior year at Sparta (N.J.). She then spent the next three seasons dealing with two different ACL tears, one in each knee, which cost her both her senior year of high school and her second year of college, with only a year as a reserve for the Wildcats in between. 

After coming off the bench for the first four games of the season, McCurry moved into the starting lineup on Nov. 16 against James Madison — and ever since then, it’s been nothing but positive results for McCurry and the Wildcats. 

That string of success continued on Sunday with a Big 5 championship, as McCurry tied her career high with 21 points to lift Villanova to a 76-70 win over Saint Joseph’s at the Finneran Pavilion. 

The 6-foot-1 forward was 6-of-11 from the floor, making all three of her 3-point attempts and all six of her free-throws, as the Wildcats (8-2) capped off a terrific week by beating their biggest city rival. It was McCurry’s sixth double-digit scoring outing in a row, all Villanova wins, including at No. 25 West Virginia on Monday and at Georgetown on Thursday to open Big East play. 

“I wouldn’t be able to do that without my team,” McCurry said. “I think people setting people up, knowing who’s hot, a lot of our ball movement, a lot of our offense is in the flow and I think everyone else talking and being able to create for others is what makes us so successful.

“I think (the wins) gives us a lot of momentum going into the rest of the season, knowing that we can beat these teams.”

Through the first four games of the season, McCurry averaged 4.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg and 3.5 apg playing a little under 20 minutes off the bench. But after an injury to starting center Kylee Watson, McCurry moved into the lineup against James Madison on Nov. 16 and thrived, putting up 18 points, seven assists and five rebounds. 

In five starts entering Sunday, she was averaging 18.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 3.6 apg, making 61.5% of her shots, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.5:1. A Swiss Army Knife type who can play multiple positions on the floor, McCurry plays something of a ‘4’ and ‘5’ for the Wildcats, though she can also initiate offense and is a strong passer who makes plays with the ball in her hands.

“Last year, last summer when we were in Italy [...] I thought Brynn was playing as our best player,” Dillon said, “and sadly got that knee injury early [in the preseason] and missed all of last year, but she picked up right where she’d left off. She’s a consistent worker and she understands the game so well.”

Sunday’s win was Villanova’s first Big 5 Classic championship in the second year of the event, after losing to Temple in the title game a year ago. Getting it this time around meant fighting off a game St. Joe’s squad which got outstanding games from three of its stars but couldn’t stop a ‘Nova squad that was red-hot from the 3-point arc. 

Led by McCurry, the Wildcats shot 13-of-24 (54.2%) from deep (41.7% overall, 25-60), getting multiple triples from Kelsey Joens (13 points) and Jasmine Bascoe (13 points, 5 assists) plus 10 points and 8 rebounds from Denae Carter. 

“The taste stuck with me and others who were playing in that game,” Dillon said. “They knew they gave something up here on our home court and wanted to make sure we took care of business today against St. Joe’s.”

Sophomore guard Rhian Stokes led the Hawks (6-3) with a season-high 23 points, her third game in a row in double figures, along with six assists and four rebounds. Gabby Casey added 19 points and eight rebounds and Aleah Snead contributed 14, 7 and 4 assists for St. Joe’s, which led for much of the first quarter but trailed the rest of the way, though almost entirely by single digits. 

The Hawks got within one or two points on numerous occasions in the third and fourth quarters, but could never hit a shot to put them over the edge. Villanova finally scored seven straight over a four-minute period to open up a 72-63 lead with 48 seconds remaining and put the game away. 

St. Joe’s shot 25-of-61 (41.0%) from the floor, 8-16 (50%) from 3-point range and 12-15 (80%) from the foul line. The rebounds (35-34 Villanova) and t turnovers (9-8 Villanova) were nearly dead-even, with Villanova’s big night from deep the main difference-maker. 

“Our kids came out and fought really hard to cut the deficit every time, we went for a run and just really kept it within distance,” SJU coach Cindy Griffin said. “And Villanova just hit a lot of 3s today [...] kudos to (McCurry) and to her teammates for stepping up because I thought we did a helluva job on Boscoe.”

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Third Place: Drexel 59, Temple 52

Molly Rullo’s figuring out the college game. 

The former Cardinal O’Hara standout had a slow start to her Drexel career, averaging 2.7 ppg and 2.3 rpg through the first seven games of the season. But after an 11-point outing against American on Wednesday, she busted out with a career game to lead the Dragons (6-3) to victory in their final city series game of the season. 

Rullo doubled that her recent performance, going for a career-best 22 points to lead all scorers; the 5-11 wing was efficient in doing so, going 8-of-9 from the floor and 5-of-6 from 3-point range, her five assists and four rebounds were also career bests. 

“I think what’s so special about our team is it can be anyone’s given night on any night,” she told CoBL in a phone call Sunday evening. “[Today was] just my teammates finding me when I was open, and yeah, just trusting me to knock down the shots.”

Rullo’s offensive explosion was critical in a game where the Dragons’ two leading scorers, senior Amaris Baker and junior Laine McGurk, combined to shoot 6-of-26 from the floor and 0-9 from 3-point range. Rullo hit all five of Drexel’s 3-pointers; the rest of the team combined to go 0-for-14. 

Temple (4-5), playing without junior point guard Tristen Taylor, got 16 points from Kaylah Turner and 10 from Jaleesa Molina. 

Drexel won the rebounding battle 35-28, including a 14-9 edge in offensive boards, a major factor in helping the Dragons emerge with the win. 

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Fifth Place: Penn 65, La Salle 52

The inside combo of sophomore Katie Collins and junior Tina Njike had their most successful outing yet, the pair combining for 34 points and 24 rebounds to lift the Quakers past the Explorers in the first game of the day. 

The two forwards, starting together this year for the first time, had struggled to both shine in the same game throughout much of the early part of the season. But they piled up the stats on Sunday afternoon; Collins scored 20 points (9-15 FG) with nine rebounds and Njike added 14 and 13 boards, going 5-9 from the floor and hitting both of her 3s. 

Sophomore guard Ashna Tambe added 11 for the Quakers (7-3), who used an 18-8 second quarter to open up an 11-point halftime lead, an edge which grew to as many as 21 points in the first four minutes of the second half. 

Aryss Macktoon had 15 points and seven rebounds and Ashleigh Connor added 12 points and seven assists for La Salle (6-3), which forced 21 turnovers but gave it away 20 times of its own, while also losing the rebounding battle 40-32. 

Penn shot 24-of-59 (40.7%) overall, 8-26 (30.8%) from the 3-point arc and 9-10 from the foul line. La Salle was 21-of-57 (36.8%) overall, 6-of-17 (35.3%) from 3 and 4-5 from the line.